back to article Choc Factory finds 84,000 ad injectors targeting Chrome

Google spam abuse researcher Kurt Thomas says some 84,000 injectors and apps are targeting its Chrome web browser with dodgy advertising. Thomas says the apps include 50,000 browser extensions and 34,000 applications which target Chrome to display revenue-generating ads within the sites that victims browse. About a third of …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      Re: Picture Grr!

      I disagree. I think this was an exceptionally pointed example of the ads referenced in the article, for once.

    2. TheVogon

      Re: Picture Grr!

      Glad I use IE + a Tracking Protection List to block this sort of crap.

      Cant see that this is particularly news worthy for a browser like Chrome that's basically adware by design though.

    3. Graham Marsden
      Devil

      Re: Picture Grr!

      Dear El Reg:

      We all know what these bloody things look like, we DO NOT need a massive (and useless) reminder of them stuck at the top of the page, not even those of us who already use AdBlock!

      Thank you...

  2. Big-nosed Pengie

    How about allowing AdblockPlus for Chrome? Problem solved.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      How about c:\users\me\appdata\local\google\chrome\hidden\fuckoff\dontdeletethis\uninstall.exe

  3. Crazy Operations Guy

    I have a better solution: I don't allow ads on my network in the first place. Anytime an ad pops up, I check where it came from and add the IP of that server to the blacklist on my DNS server and Firewall. DoubleClick and GoogleAds where the first to be added...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I check where it came from and add the IP of that server to the blacklist on my DNS server and Firewall. DoubleClick and GoogleAds where the first to be added..."

      Right - so when you block a site like CNN or a CDN (or many many others) that hosts it's own adverts as well as content don't your users get a bit pissed?

      1. Crazy Operations Guy

        "don't your users get a bit pissed?"

        I don't block self-hosted advertisements as those are very rarely malicious. Besides, my spouse and I are the only ones affected. I work from home as a senior consultant, so I'm not affected by whatever the client does.

  4. Michael Thibault
    Megaphone

    Stop their presses!

    'nough said.

  5. kryptonaut
    Happy

    That's all very interesting but...

    How do I claim my prize?

  6. David Lawrence
    FAIL

    Too little, too late

    I have given up with Chrome. I get asked to clean a lot of PCs and laptops which have accumulated all manner of malware and adware. By far the hardest things to get rid of are these Chrome 'extensions'. They avoid all detection by popular scanners such as Malwarebytes and Super Anti Spyware. They don't show when I run 'Hijack This'. They don't use the Windows Task Scheduler. No anti-virus product detects them. They even survive manual registry editing. They seem unaffected by all the guidance to "re-set eveything" in Chrome, and if you remove them via the GUI in Chrome itself they just re-appear next time Chrome is launched. Simple solution? Un-install Chrome and use a better browser. Plenty of choice out there now. Never go back to Chrome under any circumstances. Easy!

    1. Craigness

      Re: Too little, too late

      "if you remove them via the GUI in Chrome itself they just re-appear next time Chrome is launched"

      No they don't. Chrome will uninstall extensons from all synced instances and there is no API for installing an extension. There is a way to create a shortcut-style app from within an extension, but that won't create ad-injectors.

  7. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Paris Hilton

    Sir

    How did everyone get to comment on this article?

    The whole thing was 'removed' from the reg front page, but digging around I managed to get the article - and then there wasn't a link to the comments section. I had to fudge the URL to get to this page.

    /confused.

    1. Lyndon Hills 1

      Re: Sir

      It wasn't missing, or any different from any other article, when I opened it in a tab about 30 minutes ago.

  8. ecofeco Silver badge

    84,000?

    Uhm, is it just me or does this seem like a COMPLETE FUCKING FAIL by Google?

    84-fucking-thousand? Just how the FUCK did they let it get that high?

    1. Tree

      Re: 84,000?

      My Adblock has blocked doubleclick* and google-ad* many thousands of times. Guurgle is the worst about injecting unwanted things into pages. Facebutt is almost as bad. With Privacy Badger and NoScript installed, this is quite a lot of these injections. What Guurgle is doing are countermeasures to its competitors? Google ads do not have happy bouncing chimps, but they know what you've been doing.

  9. Florida1920

    Reuters

    I was getting blitzed with pop-ups on the reuters.com site last year, only on Chrome (Windows). Took several additions to hosts to terminate them. At that time I had no add-ons in Chrome. Since then I've gone back to FF and only use Chrome for Netflix, so I don't have to run Silver-whatever. It was mostly ads telling me to update Chrome (but definitely not from Google) or install some helpful code to improve my PC's performance. A plague on their houses.

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